Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 60 - The God Complex, Part 3

As quickly as it had come, the ecstasy vanished, and Lyssa doubled over on herself, gagging as the world spun dizzily around her. Falling to her hands and knees, she fought against the urge to vomit, one of her hands going to her stomach as her mouth filled with saliva. Choking it down, she took deep breaths until the urge passed and the roaring in her ears disappeared as her vision slowly cleared. 

It was only then that she realized that someone was rubbing her back and murmuring words that attempted to sound soothing, but were too fraught with worry to actually succeed. Swiping at her mouth and swallowing again, she leaned back onto her heels and looked over at Rory, too worn out to even bother pretending nothing was wrong.

"Lyssa, what's going on?" he asked as soon as he saw that she was feeling better. "That's the second time you've nearly collapsed, now. Are you sick? Are you still feeling bad after your panic attack?"

"Thank you for reminding me, and no," she grumbled, accepting his help to stand up. "Well, yes. I don't know. Why are you asking me all this? You should know by now that I'm in a perpetually confused state when it comes to my emotional life."

"Not enough of one to be perpetually sick or on the verge of collapse like you are now," he told her, refusing to be diverted from his question as he steadied her when she swayed. "What's really going on? Is this some delayed side effect from you finding your room even though you didn't go inside, or...?"

Lyssa flinched despite her best efforts, and she knew he saw it when he sucked in a sharp breath. "Lyssa... did you go inside your room?" he asked slowly.

"I don't know what's causing this," she blurted out, avoiding the question and answering his earlier question instead. "Like I said earlier, I know what's supposed to happen, and I know what it looks like when you find your room. This isn't it. You get all loopy and brainwashed like Joe and Howie." 

She frowned as a thought struck her. Her journal had told her that Rita had found her room and eventually died, but she didn't remember Rita acting like that at all. And she had found her room, so... maybe it was caused by her finding her room? 

Or maybe she reacted differently because she was no longer completely human.

 She shivered at the reminder of what she had seen in her room, twisting her fingers together nervously.

"Okay, that's enough," Rory announced suddenly, placing his hand under her elbow and forcefully guiding her out of the room and into the hallway. "I'm telling the Doctor."

"Wait, no!" she cried, twisting out of his grasp and stopping in the middle of the hall. "He doesn't need to know."

Rory stared at her incredulously. "He doesn't need to know?" he repeated, his tone rising in disbelief. "Lyssa, he's our best chance of getting out of here. Of course he needs to know! Not to mention that he'd want to know if you were hurt or sick."

"Yeah, but this is just going to distract him, and he needs to not be distracted right now," Lyssa countered, heading down the hallway again but watching him pleadingly. "We both know how he can get when he's worried about a friend."

Rory scoffed, but walked with her, hovering annoying close behind her in case she wavered again. "Yeah. He does whatever he can to make them all right. You know, like a friend should."

"I'm not saying that he shouldn't be like that," Lyssa sputtered, feeling like she was losing the battle. "I'm just saying that he can get too focused on that instead of the main issue, or lose his cool. And that's the last thing we need right now! Ugh! If I could just get the chance to look ahead, I could figure out some line of attack. I just -"